Yes I know that the headline is a little controversial and it's supposed to be. Since I watch a lot of Yankees games, I get to see lots of New York advertisements, and one of those is from the state of New York who are trying to attract business, or at least make the ones already there feel good about themselves, by a series of ads claiming that "New York works for businesses." (I wonder if they are working for average citizens but that's another issue.)
In one of the ads, the CEO of a yogurt company (at least I think he is the CEO, I search online for the ad but couldn't find it) says that because there is less regulation and paperwork to fill out in New York that he was able to hire more workers. Well let's face it, that's blatantly false on it's face.
First of all, if he had to do lots of paperwork then he would have to hire people to do that paperwork. Now that's not really a good use of employees so I'm okay with less paperwork, if only the church could figure the same thing out. But there is absolutely no way that he used the money and put it into hiring more employees.
The only reason why companies hire new employees, and the second reason why the ad is false, is because the market demands that they hire new employees. That is, if they are not selling more yogurt then they are not going to hire more people. They hire people when their current employees cannot meet the demand of the market for their yogurt. No new yogurt sales, no new employees, and that is true regardless of bureaucratic paperwork.
I have never worked for an employer who has said, we made lots of money this year, lets hire more people. Nor have I ever had an company I worked for say I, or anyone else, could hire any new people without first justifying the demand and need for that employee. And that would mean showing that we had more sales or more customer demand than we could currently meet. There are certainly some regulations that might keep business from being as big as they might otherwise be, but removing them comes with lots of costs, oftentimes environmental in the case of yogurt makers, and does not also correspondingly lead to more jobs.
We have been fooled into calling the top 1% job creators, when the simple fact is that you and I create jobs through consumption, and if we stop consuming, which is what has currently happened, then there is nothing that can be done for the "job creators" to create more jobs. If there is no demand for the products they might sell, although since most of the people at the top do not run actual companies that produce or sell things this is even harder, then they are not going to hire more people even if they have a zero tax rate. They won't hire more people until we are buying more products, which means that we need to have more disposable income which comes with working, and since many companies are not hiring, and if they do it is at greatly reduced salaries, that disposable income is not to be found.
We find ourselves in a sort of catch-22 situation, which you think would encourage people to actually look at simple economics. But the simple fact is those on the far right, who claim to understand capitalism and the markets, demonstrate with almost every statement that they make that they don't understand how they work. Because here is the truth: businesses might employee people, but we create their jobs by our expenditures with those businesses, and if we are not buying then no new jobs will be created. The market dictates jobs and job creation, not the business owner or their respective tax rates.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
You Can't Do Things Before You Do Them
I think people have forgotten what the prefix "pre" means. It means to do something before something else happens. For example, precaution means to have caution before something happens. But that is not the way it is being used anymore. Just a couple of my personal pet peeves:
Pre-board: You hear this at the airport every time you fly. But you cannot get on before you get on. Now they could use it like this "we are going to begin our pre-boarding procedures" which means telling us stuff, but as soon as people begin getting on the plane they are no longer pre-boarding, they are simply boarding. It's incorrect usage.
Pre-assembled: "This item comes pre-assembled." Either it's assembled or it's not. The only way it can work is if it's already assembled and then you have to take it apart and assemble it again, or do something else with it, then it would be pre-assembled. But why would you ever need to do that?
Pre-drill: This is used all the time in directions and DYI shows. How do you predrill a hole? It's either drilled or not, because it's not like you are going to drill it again. What they want to say is "drill the hole before trying to put in a screw", or something similar. Now it might be argued that this might come close to the understanding of "pre" but it is totally unnecessary. Instead they should simply say, "drill a hole then put in the screw"
Pre-heat: Like with predrilling it could be used to mean, preheat in preparation for cooking, but I still think it's an incorrect usage as well as unncessary. Instead the instructions should simply say "heat oven to 350° then insert item." Again, it's either heated or not, you can't do it in advance of doing it.
Pre-board: You hear this at the airport every time you fly. But you cannot get on before you get on. Now they could use it like this "we are going to begin our pre-boarding procedures" which means telling us stuff, but as soon as people begin getting on the plane they are no longer pre-boarding, they are simply boarding. It's incorrect usage.
Pre-assembled: "This item comes pre-assembled." Either it's assembled or it's not. The only way it can work is if it's already assembled and then you have to take it apart and assemble it again, or do something else with it, then it would be pre-assembled. But why would you ever need to do that?
Pre-drill: This is used all the time in directions and DYI shows. How do you predrill a hole? It's either drilled or not, because it's not like you are going to drill it again. What they want to say is "drill the hole before trying to put in a screw", or something similar. Now it might be argued that this might come close to the understanding of "pre" but it is totally unnecessary. Instead they should simply say, "drill a hole then put in the screw"
Pre-heat: Like with predrilling it could be used to mean, preheat in preparation for cooking, but I still think it's an incorrect usage as well as unncessary. Instead the instructions should simply say "heat oven to 350° then insert item." Again, it's either heated or not, you can't do it in advance of doing it.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
College Freshmen Realities
Each year, Beloit College publishes a list of the realities of most entering freshmen. Number 3 should be the most concerning for the church, although number 34 should give us hope. Number 17 makes me feel the oldest. Here is this year's list:
This year’s entering college class of 2016 was born into cyberspace and they have therefore measured their output in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future, and are entering college bombarded by questions about jobs and the value of a college degree. They have never needed an actual airline “ticket,” a set of bound encyclopedias, or Romper Room. Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1994, are probably the most tribal generation in history and they despise being separated from contact with friends. They prefer to watch television everywhere except on a television, have seen a woman lead the U.S. State Department for most of their lives, and can carry school books--those that are not on their e-Readers--in backpacks that roll.
The class of 2016 was born the year of the professional baseball strike and the last year for NFL football in Los Angeles. They have spent much of their lives helping their parents understand that you don’t take pictures on “film” and that CDs and DVDs are not “tapes.” Those parents have been able to review the crime statistics for the colleges their children have applied to and then pop an Aleve as needed. In these students’ lifetimes, with MP3 players and iPods, they seldom listen to the car radio. A quarter of the entering students already have suffered some hearing loss. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16-cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, authors of The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal (John Wiley and Sons), it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references. It quickly became an internationally monitored catalog of the changing worldview of each new college generation. Mindset List websites at themindsetlist.com and Beloit.edu, as well as the Mediasite webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million visits annually.
For those who cannot comprehend that it has been 18 years since this year’s entering college students were born, they should recognize that the next four years will go even faster, confirming the authors’ belief that “generation gaps have always needed glue.”
This year’s entering college class of 2016 was born into cyberspace and they have therefore measured their output in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future, and are entering college bombarded by questions about jobs and the value of a college degree. They have never needed an actual airline “ticket,” a set of bound encyclopedias, or Romper Room. Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1994, are probably the most tribal generation in history and they despise being separated from contact with friends. They prefer to watch television everywhere except on a television, have seen a woman lead the U.S. State Department for most of their lives, and can carry school books--those that are not on their e-Readers--in backpacks that roll.
The class of 2016 was born the year of the professional baseball strike and the last year for NFL football in Los Angeles. They have spent much of their lives helping their parents understand that you don’t take pictures on “film” and that CDs and DVDs are not “tapes.” Those parents have been able to review the crime statistics for the colleges their children have applied to and then pop an Aleve as needed. In these students’ lifetimes, with MP3 players and iPods, they seldom listen to the car radio. A quarter of the entering students already have suffered some hearing loss. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16-cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, authors of The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal (John Wiley and Sons), it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references. It quickly became an internationally monitored catalog of the changing worldview of each new college generation. Mindset List websites at themindsetlist.com and Beloit.edu, as well as the Mediasite webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million visits annually.
For those who cannot comprehend that it has been 18 years since this year’s entering college students were born, they should recognize that the next four years will go even faster, confirming the authors’ belief that “generation gaps have always needed glue.”
The Mindset List for the Class of 2016
For this generation of entering college students, born in 1994, Kurt
Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy have
always been dead.
1. They should keep their eyes open for Justin Bieber or Dakota Fanning at
freshman orientation.
2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.”
3. The Biblical sources of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them.
4. Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.”
5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube.
6. Their lives have been measured in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds.
Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway.
7. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.
8. They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
9. On TV and in films, the ditzy dumb blonde female generally has been replaced by a couple of Dumb and Dumber males.
10. The paradox "too big to fail" has been, for their generation, what "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" was for their grandparents'.
11. For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
12. They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
13. There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles.
14. Having grown up with MP3s and iPods, they never listen to music on the car radio and really have no use for radio at all.
15. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16 cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
16. Benjamin Braddock, having given up both a career in plastics and a relationship with Mrs. Robinson, could be their grandfather.
17. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf.
18. The Green Bay Packers have always celebrated with the Lambeau Leap.
19. Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
20. A significant percentage of them will enter college already displaying some hearing loss.
21. The Real World has always stopped being polite and started getting real on MTV.
22. Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
23. White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited.
24. They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
25. Having made the acquaintance of Furby at an early age, they have expected their toy friends to do ever more unpredictable things.
26. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens.
27. Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense strategy.
28. They have had to incessantly remind their parents not to refer to their CDs and DVDs as “tapes.”
29. There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.’
30. Along with online viewbooks, parents have always been able to check the crime stats for the colleges their kids have selected.
31. Newt Gingrich has always been a key figure in politics, trying to change the way America thinks about everything.
32. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future.
33. Billy Graham is as familiar to them as Otto Graham was to their parents.
34. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends.
35. Stephen Breyer has always been an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
36. Martin Lawrence has always been banned from hosting Saturday Night Live.
37. Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place.
38. The Metropolitan Opera House in New York has always translated operas on seatback screens.
39. A bit of the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, has always existed in space.
40. Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers.
41. Gene therapy has always been an available treatment.
42. They were too young to enjoy the 1994 World Series, but then no one else got to enjoy it either.
43. The folks have always been able to grab an Aleve when the kids started giving them a migraine.
44. While the iconic TV series for their older siblings was the sci-fi show Lost, for them it’sBreaking Bad, a gritty crime story motivated by desperate economic circumstances.
45. Simba has always had trouble waiting to be King.
46. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
47. They grew up, somehow, without the benefits of Romper Room.
48. There has always been a World Trade Organization.
49. L.L. Bean hunting shoes have always been known as just plain Bean Boots.
50. They have always been able to see Starz on Direct TV.
51. Ice skating competitions have always been jumping matches.
52. There has always been a Santa Clause.
53. NBC has never shown A Wonderful Life more than twice during the holidays.
54. Mr. Burns has replaced J.R.Ewing as the most shot-at man on American television.
55. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook.
56. Herr Schindler has always had a List; Mr. Spielberg has always had an Oscar.
57. Selena's fans have always been in mourning.
58. They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.
59. History has always had its own channel.
60. Thousands have always been gathering for “million-man” demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
61. Television and film dramas have always risked being pulled because the story line was too close to the 62. headlines from which they were ”ripped.”
63. TheTwilight Zone involves vampires, not Rod Serling.
64. Robert Osborne has always been introducing Hollywood history on TCM.
65. Little Caesar has always been proclaiming “Pizza Pizza.”
66. They have no recollection of when Arianna Huffington was a conservative.
67. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has always been officially recognized with clinical guidelines.
68. They watch television everywhere but on a television.
69. Pulp Fiction’s meal of a "Royale with Cheese" and an “Amos and Andy milkshake” has little or no resonance with them.
70. Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.
71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.
72. Astronauts have always spent well over a year in a single space flight.
73. Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive baseball games played has never stood in their lifetimes.
74. Genomes of living things have always been sequenced.
75. The Sistine Chapel ceiling has always been brighter and cleaner.
Copyright© 2012 Beloit College
Mindset List is a registered trademark
2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.”
3. The Biblical sources of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them.
4. Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.”
5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube.
6. Their lives have been measured in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds.
Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway.
7. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.
8. They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
9. On TV and in films, the ditzy dumb blonde female generally has been replaced by a couple of Dumb and Dumber males.
10. The paradox "too big to fail" has been, for their generation, what "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" was for their grandparents'.
11. For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
12. They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
13. There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles.
14. Having grown up with MP3s and iPods, they never listen to music on the car radio and really have no use for radio at all.
15. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16 cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
16. Benjamin Braddock, having given up both a career in plastics and a relationship with Mrs. Robinson, could be their grandfather.
17. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf.
18. The Green Bay Packers have always celebrated with the Lambeau Leap.
19. Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
20. A significant percentage of them will enter college already displaying some hearing loss.
21. The Real World has always stopped being polite and started getting real on MTV.
22. Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
23. White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited.
24. They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
25. Having made the acquaintance of Furby at an early age, they have expected their toy friends to do ever more unpredictable things.
26. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens.
27. Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense strategy.
28. They have had to incessantly remind their parents not to refer to their CDs and DVDs as “tapes.”
29. There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.’
30. Along with online viewbooks, parents have always been able to check the crime stats for the colleges their kids have selected.
31. Newt Gingrich has always been a key figure in politics, trying to change the way America thinks about everything.
32. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future.
33. Billy Graham is as familiar to them as Otto Graham was to their parents.
34. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends.
35. Stephen Breyer has always been an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
36. Martin Lawrence has always been banned from hosting Saturday Night Live.
37. Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place.
38. The Metropolitan Opera House in New York has always translated operas on seatback screens.
39. A bit of the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, has always existed in space.
40. Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers.
41. Gene therapy has always been an available treatment.
42. They were too young to enjoy the 1994 World Series, but then no one else got to enjoy it either.
43. The folks have always been able to grab an Aleve when the kids started giving them a migraine.
44. While the iconic TV series for their older siblings was the sci-fi show Lost, for them it’sBreaking Bad, a gritty crime story motivated by desperate economic circumstances.
45. Simba has always had trouble waiting to be King.
46. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
47. They grew up, somehow, without the benefits of Romper Room.
48. There has always been a World Trade Organization.
49. L.L. Bean hunting shoes have always been known as just plain Bean Boots.
50. They have always been able to see Starz on Direct TV.
51. Ice skating competitions have always been jumping matches.
52. There has always been a Santa Clause.
53. NBC has never shown A Wonderful Life more than twice during the holidays.
54. Mr. Burns has replaced J.R.Ewing as the most shot-at man on American television.
55. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook.
56. Herr Schindler has always had a List; Mr. Spielberg has always had an Oscar.
57. Selena's fans have always been in mourning.
58. They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.
59. History has always had its own channel.
60. Thousands have always been gathering for “million-man” demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
61. Television and film dramas have always risked being pulled because the story line was too close to the 62. headlines from which they were ”ripped.”
63. TheTwilight Zone involves vampires, not Rod Serling.
64. Robert Osborne has always been introducing Hollywood history on TCM.
65. Little Caesar has always been proclaiming “Pizza Pizza.”
66. They have no recollection of when Arianna Huffington was a conservative.
67. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has always been officially recognized with clinical guidelines.
68. They watch television everywhere but on a television.
69. Pulp Fiction’s meal of a "Royale with Cheese" and an “Amos and Andy milkshake” has little or no resonance with them.
70. Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.
71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.
72. Astronauts have always spent well over a year in a single space flight.
73. Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive baseball games played has never stood in their lifetimes.
74. Genomes of living things have always been sequenced.
75. The Sistine Chapel ceiling has always been brighter and cleaner.
Copyright© 2012 Beloit College
Mindset List is a registered trademark
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Kids Say The Darndest Things -- IPad Version
My wife has an iPad and she lets my daughters play different games on which they really like because I won't let them do the same thing on my Droid. So yesterday, my wife was driving our youngest daughter home from preschool and she let her play with the iPad while they were driving. Well, as will sometimes happen, in focusing all her attention on the game, she got carsick and ended up throwing up all over everything including the iPad.
So this morning our youngest came up to me and asked me where Mommy was, and I said she had gone to work. Then she asked if Mommy took her iPad with her, and I told her she did, and she went off to talk with her sister about this news, and the next thing I hear is her sister saying to her:
"I was the first one to ever play with Mommy's iPad, and you were the first one to ever vomit on it."
So this morning our youngest came up to me and asked me where Mommy was, and I said she had gone to work. Then she asked if Mommy took her iPad with her, and I told her she did, and she went off to talk with her sister about this news, and the next thing I hear is her sister saying to her:
"I was the first one to ever play with Mommy's iPad, and you were the first one to ever vomit on it."
Down on the Farm: Stuck in the Mud
Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Matthew 13:1-9. This series was based on a series created by Rev. Adam Hamilton.
Once upon I time I worked for a non-profit group that built low income housing using environmentally sustainable building materials. As one of our projects, we built a demonstration house out of straw bales on the Navajo reservation for an 86 year-old woman. In order to help prepare for that, I borrowed my dad’s pick-up and picked up a 15 foot trailer in Gallup, along with a full load of straw bales and headed out to the building site. I pulled the truck up to where we thought would be the easiest place to unload the bales and once I stopped, the truck and trailer promptly sank into the sand with the weight of the straw. After we got the bales unloaded we then tried to get the truck out, and try as we might it didn’t want to go. The tires just spun and we got more stuck. Eventually we were able to get the truck and the trailer out of the sand with the help of two other trucks with four-wheel-drive who were able to pull me out. I’m sure it’s an experience that many of you have had, whether it’s sand, or more likely mud, or something else, where no matter what you do you can’t get out and you spin and spin your wheels and wait for something or someone else to help pull you out. Being stuck in the mud could be a metaphor for the human condition.
Today we begin a new sermon series looking at lessons that we can learn from life on the farm and I am indebted to Adam Hamilton for the idea. This should be an interesting experience as I, a city slicker, try and talk with you about what we can learn from an agricultural life. Although the house I grew up in was surrounded by agriculture, there was a cotton field a half block from the house, and orange groves less than a mile away, our agriculture was limited to a small garden in the side yard, and all that I can really remember about that, besides having to pull weeds, is the big green caterpillars that loved to attack the tomato plants, and the only thing I grow now is hair, and I obviously can’t even do a very good job at that anymore. So I’ve spent a lot of time recently trolling the extension programs of different universities around the country trying to learn a thing or two, and have talked with some of you about what it is that you do, and I may have learned just enough to make me dangerous.
Today we start by looking at soil, and mud. Now I thought that the way we were going this year that I might have to explain to everyone what mud was, what it looked like and how it was made, but I thank God that we go enough rain this week that mud can actually be a reality in our lives. What I hope to do as we work our way through this series is to discuss some of the keys to living a Christian life that can be found not only through life on the farm, but through the agricultural stories we find in scripture, and we find them throughout scripture. In the second chapter of Genesis, which is the second telling of the creation story, which is very different than the first story found in genesis 1, but we are told that “the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east.” God planted a garden. God is a gardener. Later in the book of Isaiah we are told that God had a fertile hill and he dug it and cleared it of stones and then planted the best vines in it and built a watchtower. Metaphorically we are supposed to know that the vines in this story are Israel and the watchtower is the Temple, but once again God is portrayed as a gardener. This story from Isaiah is reworked into what is known as the parable of the wicked tenants which we find Jesus telling in Matthew, Mark and Luke, in, just like in Isaiah, God plants a vineyard and does everything necessary to get the vineyard.
But it’s not just these stories, the New Testament and in particular, Jesus’ parables use lots of agricultural metaphors, because they would have readily been understood by the audience he was talking to. Even if they happened to live in one of the metropolitan areas you can be assured that they still had connections to the country and the growing of food. Even within this country, it wasn’t very long that most people still had a connection to a farm, but that’s certainly not the case anymore. Few people are connected to soil, or even know people who are connected to the soil, I know that’s not the case here, but it’s true in most places, even if we went into Clovis.
We buy our fruits and vegetables from stores, we don’t grow them ourselves, and if you’ve tasted something that’s come right out of the garden you know there is a difference. Tomatoes, green beans, or corn all taste different when they are picked at the height of freshness. Most of what we buy in the store was picked before it was fully ripe in order to travel hundreds, or more than likely thousands of miles, to get to the grocery store shelves. It looks good, but it’s not as good as it could be. Now I am not telling you that you need to go out and grow your own food, although you’ll be better off if you do, nor is this an invitation to flood me with all the vegetables you’ve grown in your own gardens. There are lots of reasons why people don’t have their own gardens, and the biggest reason is that it takes a lot of work. Just the amount of time you put into makes it more cost effective to buy it from the store. But boy does fresh grown corn taste so much better.
Often our faith is like those store bought vegetables, they’ve been picked before they were fully ripe, they’ve been waxed up to make them look better than they really are, to put on a good face to the world, and the work has been done predominantly by someone else. It’s just not as authentic, it’s just not as good as those vegetables that are grown and picked and eaten fresh from the vine, it’s just not as good when it’s not our work that’s gone into making it and tending it and caring for it and reaping the harvest.
A sower went out to sow, or most translations say, a farmer went out to sow, and first he scattered seed on the path, but because it was so well trodden, the earth was so hard, the seed couldn’t penetrate the soil, and the birds ate the seeds. Next the seeds fell on rocky ground, where the ground was shallow, or maybe it was full a caliche and so the roots couldn’t break through, and they couldn’t get enough nutrients because the calcium carbonate causes the soil to become basic, see I told you I had just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and so when the sun rises they become scorched and wither away because the roots have no depth. Third the seeds are spread amongst the thorns, but the thorns grow up and choke them, and they die, and finally seeds fall on good soil, where they prosper and flourish bringing about a large harvest.
The soil that is being spoken of here is, of course, our hearts or maybe or souls, and the seed is the word of God. Sometimes we have a hard exterior which we have put up, often, as protection because we have been hurt in the past and so we create an exterior of steel so that nothing can get in to touch our hearts, including the word of God. Let anyone with ears listen. Others have built up that hard shell, but rather than being on the outside for everyone to see, this time it’s on the inside. Our outward experience might show that nothing is wrong, that we go about our business, but inside we are hard, and so even if the word of God gets into us, it doesn’t penetrate our heart, and then when we are challenged, when something happens, are faith withers up and dies because we have not been penetrated by God’s love, we don’t know into our deepest being that God loves us and that we are sons and daughters of God. Let anyone with ears listen. Others are associating with people and doing things they know they shouldn’t be doing, and they drift away, as they so if you lie down with dogs you’re liable to get flees. There are lots of things which drag us away from God, which allow the weeds to choke out our faith, even Paul said “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Rom 7:19) But then Paul asks, who will rescue me? It is God through Jesus Christ. Let anyone with ears listen. Then finally there is the soil which is properly tilled, properly prepared which has the right PH balance, all the right nutrients and is completely ready to receive the word. Let anyone with ears listen.
The simple fact is, we are all of these soil types at different times in our lives, and maybe at different times during the week. Each one of these types represent being stuck in the mud, and there is only one thing that can pull us out, and that is surrendering, accepting and following Jesus Christ. If you are familiar with the 12-steps program, the first step is to “admit that we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable,” we are stuck in the mud. The second step is to believe in a power greater than ourselves, who can pull us out of the mud, and the third step is to make the decision to turn our lives over to the care of God. Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, who created the 12-steps, did not just create them out of thin air, these have been the steps of becoming a disciple of Christ since Jesus called the first disciples on the shore of the sea of Galilee. The beginning step of being a disciple of Christ, the first thing that we must do is to surrender, accept and learn to follow Christ, to understand that we can’t do it ourselves. To recognize that we live in mud, that we all fall short of the glory of God, and that to be pulled out, that only something which is greater and more powerful than us can pull us out, and that is Jesus Christ, and the way to have that happen is to surrender, accept and to follow Jesus Christ, to turn our lives over to him.
A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends, when they came to a muddy patch in the road and got bogged down. After a few minutes of trying to get their car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane driving some oxen. The farmer stopped when he saw the couple and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50. The couple accepted and the car was freed in a few minutes. The man said to the farmer, “I’m so glad you can along to help us, I don’t know what we would have done with you.” And the farmer said, “well I kind of keep an eye out, you’re the tenth car I’ve helped get out of the mud today.” The man looked at the farmer and said, “If you’re helping so many people, when do you have time to plough your fields? Do you do it at night?” and the farmer said, “No. Night is when I put more water in the hole.”
Have you ever had a time in which you could clearly feel God’s presence, maybe even heard God speak to you, or sometime when you could say “that was a God moment?” That’s a mountain top moment, and they are remarkable, but here is the problem with mountaintop experiences, they never go on forever even if we want them to. When some of the disciples go up on the mountain with Jesus, and he is transfigured with the glory of God, and they see him talking with Moses and Elijah, Peter wants to stay and build three structures, to sort of immortalize the event, because he doesn’t get it. We can’t stay on the mountain top forever. Even Moses had to come down off the mountain, and what happened when he did? Every single time he found the Israelites doing what they weren’t supposed to be doing, or he ran into conflict and turmoil. I’m sure that Moses would have preferred to remain on the mountaintop, just as we probably would as well, but the simple reality is we don’t live on the mountaintops we live in the valleys, we live in the in betweens, we live in the mud and the muck of everyday ordinary life, and we really have two choices.
We can remain in the mud, wallowing in it, trying to get others as stuck as we are, and there are always people who want to pull you into the mud, or throw mud at you, to get you just as dirty as they are, we all know people like that, so we can choose to remain in the mud, or we can seek to be pulled out. But if you are stuck in the mud, what is the only thing that can get you out? It’s someone bigger and more powerful than you, someone who is not already stuck in the mud themselves, just like with my experience on the Navajo reservation when I was stuck, it required two other trucks to pull me out, I couldn’t do it myself. To get out of the mud of life it requires someone bigger and stronger than we are, it requires someone who has experienced the mud, but who did not get stuck, did not get mired down, but who passed through to the other side in order to be able to pull others out, it requires following Jesus Christ, but in order to do that we must also take on the first step of discipleship and that is to surrender, accept and follow. If we don’t do those things we’ll never really get out, because if we struggle and fight, which we are all prone to do, then the trip won’t be easy or sometimes might not even be possible.
What we also have to know, and this trips people up all the time, is that just turning our lives over to God, choosing to surrender, accept and follow Christ will not immediately solve all of our problems. We are not instantaneously lifted out of the mud. If we have walked 10 miles through the mud in the wrong direction, to be pulled out there is still going to be some mud going in the opposite way back onto the path that God has set for us. But, when we surrender, accept and follow, then we know that we are in safe hands and that everything will work out right in the end.
Some of you have already heard this story, but I received my call to the ministry in 1995, but I dismissed it for a long time. It wasn’t until 1998 that I went to a United Methodist church and began to have a conversation about what it would take and what it would mean to enter the ministry and I began my process. But even though I had taken that step, I wasn’t still fully committed, I was still trying to do things on my own terms and in my own time. As I was doing this I had a job I loved, but a boss I couldn’t stand, and one Monday morning as I was driving into work I began praying, which was not my usual practice, because I knew that my boss and I were going to argue when I got in, because that’s all we ever did, and so I prayed to God and said that if I was supposed to be doing something differently, if I was supposed to be going in a different direction, then God was going to have to show me what to do because I had no idea what I was doing anymore. In other words I surrendered, accepted and choose to follow Christ.
Just as I expected, my boss and I got into an argument and I ended up walking out the door. It is the only job I’ve walked out on. But as it turned out, I ended up with a job interview that afternoon with the company that had just been awarded the contract for the revitalization of downtown Albuquerque, which required me to move to Albuquerque, which would allow me to complete my college degree at UNM, my brother moved back to Albuquerque all the way from North Carolina, so we could move into together, and shortly thereafter I met Linda. So within six months of that prayer, I had a new job, was living in a new city and was dating the person who would become my wife. Where all of my problems solved? Of course not, and some of them got worse after that point, but by them getting worse I was forced me to seek help, which them helped me eliminate them, that is I was stuck in the mud, but in order to get out of the mud I had to keep wading through the mud for a while before I was freed. I’ve been stuck in the mud other times since then, but I know that when I choose to surrender, accept and to follow Jesus Christ that things will get better and I will move into God’s will for my life. Let anyone with ears listen.
Long before I understood this reality, John Wesley understood this reality, and he composed a covenantal prayer that members of the Methodist movement would say at least once each year. Typically it was done at the new year, and we did it on New Year’s day this year, but I also think it’s appropriate to say together today as we take our lessons from what we can learn down on the farm about the Christian life, and the first is that the only thing which can get us out of the mud is something bigger and more powerful than we are, and that is Jesus Christ, and that begins when we surrender, accept and learn to follow, so let us pledge this together in Wesley’s covenantal prayer
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Once upon I time I worked for a non-profit group that built low income housing using environmentally sustainable building materials. As one of our projects, we built a demonstration house out of straw bales on the Navajo reservation for an 86 year-old woman. In order to help prepare for that, I borrowed my dad’s pick-up and picked up a 15 foot trailer in Gallup, along with a full load of straw bales and headed out to the building site. I pulled the truck up to where we thought would be the easiest place to unload the bales and once I stopped, the truck and trailer promptly sank into the sand with the weight of the straw. After we got the bales unloaded we then tried to get the truck out, and try as we might it didn’t want to go. The tires just spun and we got more stuck. Eventually we were able to get the truck and the trailer out of the sand with the help of two other trucks with four-wheel-drive who were able to pull me out. I’m sure it’s an experience that many of you have had, whether it’s sand, or more likely mud, or something else, where no matter what you do you can’t get out and you spin and spin your wheels and wait for something or someone else to help pull you out. Being stuck in the mud could be a metaphor for the human condition.
Today we begin a new sermon series looking at lessons that we can learn from life on the farm and I am indebted to Adam Hamilton for the idea. This should be an interesting experience as I, a city slicker, try and talk with you about what we can learn from an agricultural life. Although the house I grew up in was surrounded by agriculture, there was a cotton field a half block from the house, and orange groves less than a mile away, our agriculture was limited to a small garden in the side yard, and all that I can really remember about that, besides having to pull weeds, is the big green caterpillars that loved to attack the tomato plants, and the only thing I grow now is hair, and I obviously can’t even do a very good job at that anymore. So I’ve spent a lot of time recently trolling the extension programs of different universities around the country trying to learn a thing or two, and have talked with some of you about what it is that you do, and I may have learned just enough to make me dangerous.
Today we start by looking at soil, and mud. Now I thought that the way we were going this year that I might have to explain to everyone what mud was, what it looked like and how it was made, but I thank God that we go enough rain this week that mud can actually be a reality in our lives. What I hope to do as we work our way through this series is to discuss some of the keys to living a Christian life that can be found not only through life on the farm, but through the agricultural stories we find in scripture, and we find them throughout scripture. In the second chapter of Genesis, which is the second telling of the creation story, which is very different than the first story found in genesis 1, but we are told that “the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east.” God planted a garden. God is a gardener. Later in the book of Isaiah we are told that God had a fertile hill and he dug it and cleared it of stones and then planted the best vines in it and built a watchtower. Metaphorically we are supposed to know that the vines in this story are Israel and the watchtower is the Temple, but once again God is portrayed as a gardener. This story from Isaiah is reworked into what is known as the parable of the wicked tenants which we find Jesus telling in Matthew, Mark and Luke, in, just like in Isaiah, God plants a vineyard and does everything necessary to get the vineyard.
But it’s not just these stories, the New Testament and in particular, Jesus’ parables use lots of agricultural metaphors, because they would have readily been understood by the audience he was talking to. Even if they happened to live in one of the metropolitan areas you can be assured that they still had connections to the country and the growing of food. Even within this country, it wasn’t very long that most people still had a connection to a farm, but that’s certainly not the case anymore. Few people are connected to soil, or even know people who are connected to the soil, I know that’s not the case here, but it’s true in most places, even if we went into Clovis.
We buy our fruits and vegetables from stores, we don’t grow them ourselves, and if you’ve tasted something that’s come right out of the garden you know there is a difference. Tomatoes, green beans, or corn all taste different when they are picked at the height of freshness. Most of what we buy in the store was picked before it was fully ripe in order to travel hundreds, or more than likely thousands of miles, to get to the grocery store shelves. It looks good, but it’s not as good as it could be. Now I am not telling you that you need to go out and grow your own food, although you’ll be better off if you do, nor is this an invitation to flood me with all the vegetables you’ve grown in your own gardens. There are lots of reasons why people don’t have their own gardens, and the biggest reason is that it takes a lot of work. Just the amount of time you put into makes it more cost effective to buy it from the store. But boy does fresh grown corn taste so much better.
Often our faith is like those store bought vegetables, they’ve been picked before they were fully ripe, they’ve been waxed up to make them look better than they really are, to put on a good face to the world, and the work has been done predominantly by someone else. It’s just not as authentic, it’s just not as good as those vegetables that are grown and picked and eaten fresh from the vine, it’s just not as good when it’s not our work that’s gone into making it and tending it and caring for it and reaping the harvest.
A sower went out to sow, or most translations say, a farmer went out to sow, and first he scattered seed on the path, but because it was so well trodden, the earth was so hard, the seed couldn’t penetrate the soil, and the birds ate the seeds. Next the seeds fell on rocky ground, where the ground was shallow, or maybe it was full a caliche and so the roots couldn’t break through, and they couldn’t get enough nutrients because the calcium carbonate causes the soil to become basic, see I told you I had just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and so when the sun rises they become scorched and wither away because the roots have no depth. Third the seeds are spread amongst the thorns, but the thorns grow up and choke them, and they die, and finally seeds fall on good soil, where they prosper and flourish bringing about a large harvest.
The soil that is being spoken of here is, of course, our hearts or maybe or souls, and the seed is the word of God. Sometimes we have a hard exterior which we have put up, often, as protection because we have been hurt in the past and so we create an exterior of steel so that nothing can get in to touch our hearts, including the word of God. Let anyone with ears listen. Others have built up that hard shell, but rather than being on the outside for everyone to see, this time it’s on the inside. Our outward experience might show that nothing is wrong, that we go about our business, but inside we are hard, and so even if the word of God gets into us, it doesn’t penetrate our heart, and then when we are challenged, when something happens, are faith withers up and dies because we have not been penetrated by God’s love, we don’t know into our deepest being that God loves us and that we are sons and daughters of God. Let anyone with ears listen. Others are associating with people and doing things they know they shouldn’t be doing, and they drift away, as they so if you lie down with dogs you’re liable to get flees. There are lots of things which drag us away from God, which allow the weeds to choke out our faith, even Paul said “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Rom 7:19) But then Paul asks, who will rescue me? It is God through Jesus Christ. Let anyone with ears listen. Then finally there is the soil which is properly tilled, properly prepared which has the right PH balance, all the right nutrients and is completely ready to receive the word. Let anyone with ears listen.
The simple fact is, we are all of these soil types at different times in our lives, and maybe at different times during the week. Each one of these types represent being stuck in the mud, and there is only one thing that can pull us out, and that is surrendering, accepting and following Jesus Christ. If you are familiar with the 12-steps program, the first step is to “admit that we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable,” we are stuck in the mud. The second step is to believe in a power greater than ourselves, who can pull us out of the mud, and the third step is to make the decision to turn our lives over to the care of God. Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, who created the 12-steps, did not just create them out of thin air, these have been the steps of becoming a disciple of Christ since Jesus called the first disciples on the shore of the sea of Galilee. The beginning step of being a disciple of Christ, the first thing that we must do is to surrender, accept and learn to follow Christ, to understand that we can’t do it ourselves. To recognize that we live in mud, that we all fall short of the glory of God, and that to be pulled out, that only something which is greater and more powerful than us can pull us out, and that is Jesus Christ, and the way to have that happen is to surrender, accept and to follow Jesus Christ, to turn our lives over to him.
A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends, when they came to a muddy patch in the road and got bogged down. After a few minutes of trying to get their car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane driving some oxen. The farmer stopped when he saw the couple and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50. The couple accepted and the car was freed in a few minutes. The man said to the farmer, “I’m so glad you can along to help us, I don’t know what we would have done with you.” And the farmer said, “well I kind of keep an eye out, you’re the tenth car I’ve helped get out of the mud today.” The man looked at the farmer and said, “If you’re helping so many people, when do you have time to plough your fields? Do you do it at night?” and the farmer said, “No. Night is when I put more water in the hole.”
Have you ever had a time in which you could clearly feel God’s presence, maybe even heard God speak to you, or sometime when you could say “that was a God moment?” That’s a mountain top moment, and they are remarkable, but here is the problem with mountaintop experiences, they never go on forever even if we want them to. When some of the disciples go up on the mountain with Jesus, and he is transfigured with the glory of God, and they see him talking with Moses and Elijah, Peter wants to stay and build three structures, to sort of immortalize the event, because he doesn’t get it. We can’t stay on the mountain top forever. Even Moses had to come down off the mountain, and what happened when he did? Every single time he found the Israelites doing what they weren’t supposed to be doing, or he ran into conflict and turmoil. I’m sure that Moses would have preferred to remain on the mountaintop, just as we probably would as well, but the simple reality is we don’t live on the mountaintops we live in the valleys, we live in the in betweens, we live in the mud and the muck of everyday ordinary life, and we really have two choices.
We can remain in the mud, wallowing in it, trying to get others as stuck as we are, and there are always people who want to pull you into the mud, or throw mud at you, to get you just as dirty as they are, we all know people like that, so we can choose to remain in the mud, or we can seek to be pulled out. But if you are stuck in the mud, what is the only thing that can get you out? It’s someone bigger and more powerful than you, someone who is not already stuck in the mud themselves, just like with my experience on the Navajo reservation when I was stuck, it required two other trucks to pull me out, I couldn’t do it myself. To get out of the mud of life it requires someone bigger and stronger than we are, it requires someone who has experienced the mud, but who did not get stuck, did not get mired down, but who passed through to the other side in order to be able to pull others out, it requires following Jesus Christ, but in order to do that we must also take on the first step of discipleship and that is to surrender, accept and follow. If we don’t do those things we’ll never really get out, because if we struggle and fight, which we are all prone to do, then the trip won’t be easy or sometimes might not even be possible.
What we also have to know, and this trips people up all the time, is that just turning our lives over to God, choosing to surrender, accept and follow Christ will not immediately solve all of our problems. We are not instantaneously lifted out of the mud. If we have walked 10 miles through the mud in the wrong direction, to be pulled out there is still going to be some mud going in the opposite way back onto the path that God has set for us. But, when we surrender, accept and follow, then we know that we are in safe hands and that everything will work out right in the end.
Some of you have already heard this story, but I received my call to the ministry in 1995, but I dismissed it for a long time. It wasn’t until 1998 that I went to a United Methodist church and began to have a conversation about what it would take and what it would mean to enter the ministry and I began my process. But even though I had taken that step, I wasn’t still fully committed, I was still trying to do things on my own terms and in my own time. As I was doing this I had a job I loved, but a boss I couldn’t stand, and one Monday morning as I was driving into work I began praying, which was not my usual practice, because I knew that my boss and I were going to argue when I got in, because that’s all we ever did, and so I prayed to God and said that if I was supposed to be doing something differently, if I was supposed to be going in a different direction, then God was going to have to show me what to do because I had no idea what I was doing anymore. In other words I surrendered, accepted and choose to follow Christ.
Just as I expected, my boss and I got into an argument and I ended up walking out the door. It is the only job I’ve walked out on. But as it turned out, I ended up with a job interview that afternoon with the company that had just been awarded the contract for the revitalization of downtown Albuquerque, which required me to move to Albuquerque, which would allow me to complete my college degree at UNM, my brother moved back to Albuquerque all the way from North Carolina, so we could move into together, and shortly thereafter I met Linda. So within six months of that prayer, I had a new job, was living in a new city and was dating the person who would become my wife. Where all of my problems solved? Of course not, and some of them got worse after that point, but by them getting worse I was forced me to seek help, which them helped me eliminate them, that is I was stuck in the mud, but in order to get out of the mud I had to keep wading through the mud for a while before I was freed. I’ve been stuck in the mud other times since then, but I know that when I choose to surrender, accept and to follow Jesus Christ that things will get better and I will move into God’s will for my life. Let anyone with ears listen.
Long before I understood this reality, John Wesley understood this reality, and he composed a covenantal prayer that members of the Methodist movement would say at least once each year. Typically it was done at the new year, and we did it on New Year’s day this year, but I also think it’s appropriate to say together today as we take our lessons from what we can learn down on the farm about the Christian life, and the first is that the only thing which can get us out of the mud is something bigger and more powerful than we are, and that is Jesus Christ, and that begins when we surrender, accept and learn to follow, so let us pledge this together in Wesley’s covenantal prayer
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Silencing Ministerial Candidates
Recently I went to lunch with a seminary student who is also in process with the United Methodist church. One of the things we talked about was how you have to watch what you say everywhere you go in the conference for fear that it will come up at some later point in the ordination process. We sort of have our own set of Miranda rights, "anything you say can and will be used against you by the Board of Ordination."
But it's not just what you say, it's what you do, who you know, who you associate with, all of these things can hurt you later. One of my colleagues appropriately described the process as going through a process to join a fraternity or sorority at their heights when hazing was all a part of the process. Except universities and Greek organizations have really worked to eliminate hazing. The church, however, has not. I saw, heard about, and experienced things that should never have been tolerated, and I always felt like it was being done for one of two reasons.
The first was that it had been done to them and so they were returning the favor. After all when it is replicated then what they went through can be justified. Rather than saying, what happened to me never should have happened, they keep perpetuating the process, and one could argue, make it a step worse each time. This is what happened in Greek organizations and the military and other organizations with significant hazing practices that have since been cracked down on.
The second reason was that it was a power system with absolutely no checks on it, and as Lord Acton said, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." There is little recourse that ministerial candidates have in the UMC, and even to raise an issue is to again take your career into your own hands because you honestly don't know who you can trust and who you can't. If you say something will it hurt you later? You simply don't know and so many keep their mouths shut.
I did have something happen to me which I raised with my mentor, and she took to someone in a position of power, whom I liked and trusted. I then told him what happened, and he said he would address it. But nothing ever happened, at least as far as I could tell. The person in question continued to serve on both the BOOM and the DCOM and I am sure is still torturing other candidates and using information he gathers inappropriately simply because he can.
And, unlike fraternities, members of the BOOM and the DCOM control your future and your career. If they say you aren't moving forward, then you aren't moving forward. If they remove you, for whatever reason, then you are done. I had candidacy mentor training last week and it was amazing how many of them talked about candidates they had worked with being shot down by different groups because someone "didn't like them." This was never raised as an issue, simply stated as a reality.
Which leads me back to my lunch with a candidate for ministry. As we talked about this and he told me his experience I was able to confirm it, even though much of which happened to me was in a different conference, and told him to keep his head down. I did say that I did see myself having more freedom to say things I never would have said, including on this blog, before I was ordained in June. But what I also realized after it was over was that the process still has me on edge and trying to protect myself because as I was driving home I realized that I had been able to be completely open and honest with him, and that I had not been able to do that for a long time.
I actually felt refreshed in being able to just have a conversation with another clergy colleague, which I considered him, and not worrying about anything else, that I didn't have to guard what I was saying or be concerned that others might hear what I had said and question/grill me about it later. As Elders we are supposed to be in relation with each other, as part of a covenant, but until you actually get into the "cult of the Elder" as I called it, you are always separate and the covenant does not extend to you.
Rather than bringing the best out in candidates, in my experience, and testimony of other, it instead silences us and leaves us constantly on guard and on watch. It leaves us holding our tongues careful to watch literally everything we say and everything we do. It discourages the sort of "radical" thinking the church says it wants to see, and it stifles those in process from ever trying to stick their heads out because, just like it Whack-A-Mole, it will be hit or taken off altogether.
And what's worse is that because the process takes so long, it was 9 years from the time I entered seminary to my ordination, it becomes ingrained into who we are. I didn't realize it was so until that lunch meeting and the feeling that I was free to be who I am and there was nothing they could do about it. Even though I am now ordained and therefore protected to a large degree, never having to justify myself to another group, that hesitancy was still part of me. I hope that with time it will go away, but really wonder if to a degree it will always be there.
But it's not just what you say, it's what you do, who you know, who you associate with, all of these things can hurt you later. One of my colleagues appropriately described the process as going through a process to join a fraternity or sorority at their heights when hazing was all a part of the process. Except universities and Greek organizations have really worked to eliminate hazing. The church, however, has not. I saw, heard about, and experienced things that should never have been tolerated, and I always felt like it was being done for one of two reasons.
The first was that it had been done to them and so they were returning the favor. After all when it is replicated then what they went through can be justified. Rather than saying, what happened to me never should have happened, they keep perpetuating the process, and one could argue, make it a step worse each time. This is what happened in Greek organizations and the military and other organizations with significant hazing practices that have since been cracked down on.
The second reason was that it was a power system with absolutely no checks on it, and as Lord Acton said, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." There is little recourse that ministerial candidates have in the UMC, and even to raise an issue is to again take your career into your own hands because you honestly don't know who you can trust and who you can't. If you say something will it hurt you later? You simply don't know and so many keep their mouths shut.
I did have something happen to me which I raised with my mentor, and she took to someone in a position of power, whom I liked and trusted. I then told him what happened, and he said he would address it. But nothing ever happened, at least as far as I could tell. The person in question continued to serve on both the BOOM and the DCOM and I am sure is still torturing other candidates and using information he gathers inappropriately simply because he can.
And, unlike fraternities, members of the BOOM and the DCOM control your future and your career. If they say you aren't moving forward, then you aren't moving forward. If they remove you, for whatever reason, then you are done. I had candidacy mentor training last week and it was amazing how many of them talked about candidates they had worked with being shot down by different groups because someone "didn't like them." This was never raised as an issue, simply stated as a reality.
Which leads me back to my lunch with a candidate for ministry. As we talked about this and he told me his experience I was able to confirm it, even though much of which happened to me was in a different conference, and told him to keep his head down. I did say that I did see myself having more freedom to say things I never would have said, including on this blog, before I was ordained in June. But what I also realized after it was over was that the process still has me on edge and trying to protect myself because as I was driving home I realized that I had been able to be completely open and honest with him, and that I had not been able to do that for a long time.
I actually felt refreshed in being able to just have a conversation with another clergy colleague, which I considered him, and not worrying about anything else, that I didn't have to guard what I was saying or be concerned that others might hear what I had said and question/grill me about it later. As Elders we are supposed to be in relation with each other, as part of a covenant, but until you actually get into the "cult of the Elder" as I called it, you are always separate and the covenant does not extend to you.
Rather than bringing the best out in candidates, in my experience, and testimony of other, it instead silences us and leaves us constantly on guard and on watch. It leaves us holding our tongues careful to watch literally everything we say and everything we do. It discourages the sort of "radical" thinking the church says it wants to see, and it stifles those in process from ever trying to stick their heads out because, just like it Whack-A-Mole, it will be hit or taken off altogether.
And what's worse is that because the process takes so long, it was 9 years from the time I entered seminary to my ordination, it becomes ingrained into who we are. I didn't realize it was so until that lunch meeting and the feeling that I was free to be who I am and there was nothing they could do about it. Even though I am now ordained and therefore protected to a large degree, never having to justify myself to another group, that hesitancy was still part of me. I hope that with time it will go away, but really wonder if to a degree it will always be there.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Right Stuff
"There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier." -- opening from The Right Stuff
Yesterday we lost Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the first American to orbit the planet when John Glenn did it on February 20, 1962 as part of Project Mercury, from which the quote above applies, all though it was really about Chuck Yeager.
I was born in 1972 so all I've ever known is us sending astronauts into space and our ability to reach the moon. NASA is nowhere near the program it used to be and does not inspire the national attention or imagination as it once did, even with the recent landing on Mars, and perhaps that is a tragedy.
There is something special about having a frontier to explore, where there are still unknowns and discoveries to be made, and as Gene Rodenberry memorably wrote, "Space, the final frontier...."
Yesterday we lost Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the first American to orbit the planet when John Glenn did it on February 20, 1962 as part of Project Mercury, from which the quote above applies, all though it was really about Chuck Yeager.
I was born in 1972 so all I've ever known is us sending astronauts into space and our ability to reach the moon. NASA is nowhere near the program it used to be and does not inspire the national attention or imagination as it once did, even with the recent landing on Mars, and perhaps that is a tragedy.
There is something special about having a frontier to explore, where there are still unknowns and discoveries to be made, and as Gene Rodenberry memorably wrote, "Space, the final frontier...."
Friday, August 24, 2012
It's A Gathering of Young Clergy, So Where Are The Young Clergy?
This week the General Board of Higher Education gathered together for a summit on issues facing young clergy. But here was one of the first problems I saw. Only 25% of the participants were under the age of thirty and less than 50% were under the age of 40. So a summit to talk about issues of "young" clergy had less than 50% of the participants in that age range. Does that make any sense? (by definition "young" clergy are those under age 35)
I understand that there have to be "older" clergy there because they are the ones in leadership positions who can actually do something, or do nothing, which is another problem that I'm not sure was addressed. But shouldn't the representation of the group being discussed be larger? If there was a summit to discuss the issues of minority clergy members but more than 50% of the participants at such a gathering were white, wouldn't we cry foul? So why not here?
The other problem is that it was not clear how the participants were invited to attend. Someone asked this on Twitter and were told someone would find out, but no answer was forthcoming. I never heard anything about it, nor did other young clergy that I know. In addition, there were lots of annual conferences asking on Twitter if anyone from their conferences were attending, so apparently even the annual conferences knew little to nothing about it. If we are going to address systemic issues dealing with young clergy, how is that the system knew so little about it?
Finally, at the end of the first day it was announced that they hoped to come back the next day with some policy statements. Alright, exactly what we need more policy statements. More policy statements are sure to solve all of our problems. Sounds to me more like them saying "we gave young clergy the opportunity to have some say, so we've done all we need to do," and now their policy statements can be published and then ignored just like all other such statements.
When I was serving the New England Annual Conference the bishop there said they were very concerned about recruiting and retaining young clergy. At the same time he was making these statements I was seeking to leave that conference to come to New Mexico, and not a single person from the conference ever asked me why I was leaving or what they might do to get me to stay. I think I'm a fairly competent clergy member and do a good job, and New Mexico certainly thought so, but New England simply didn't care. But they talked a good game and had good policy statements about young clergy, but it never matched their reality or actions. They said they wanted to keep good clergy but did nothing to actually keep them, or even talk with those they were trying to keep or recruit.
We are way past the time of needing more policy statements, we need actions. One person on Twitter commented on the constant discussion of leadership, and she thought that we were becoming too enamored with the idea of leadership. I told her I thought the problem was we didn't talk about leadership enough, and instead focused on managers. Managers make policy, shuffle paper, organize, etc. Managers are important for organizations because they help keep the institution going, but if everyone is a manager the institution is doomed to failure because leadership will move it forward.
Leaders cast vision, they give direction, they create new ideas and new initiatives, they push in new ways and try radical and dangerous things. No manager has ever excited a group of people, except other management types. No one will jump off a cliff or push beyond their comfort zones for a manager, but people will do those things and many others to follow a leader. I do think you can be a good manager and a good leader, although that is not typical, but John Wesley was both.
We need many more leaders in the church, and a lot less managers, and we need leaders who not only are actually willing to listen to young clergy, but to engage with them as equals, to put them into positions of leadership and to work together to forge a new future for the church. What we don't need are more gatherings for young people that have few young people, or any more policy statements.
(My disclaimer: While I consider myself a young clergy, I am 39, so do not meet the definition established by the church, but am definitely at the young end of the spectrum in the two annual conferences I have served.)
I understand that there have to be "older" clergy there because they are the ones in leadership positions who can actually do something, or do nothing, which is another problem that I'm not sure was addressed. But shouldn't the representation of the group being discussed be larger? If there was a summit to discuss the issues of minority clergy members but more than 50% of the participants at such a gathering were white, wouldn't we cry foul? So why not here?
The other problem is that it was not clear how the participants were invited to attend. Someone asked this on Twitter and were told someone would find out, but no answer was forthcoming. I never heard anything about it, nor did other young clergy that I know. In addition, there were lots of annual conferences asking on Twitter if anyone from their conferences were attending, so apparently even the annual conferences knew little to nothing about it. If we are going to address systemic issues dealing with young clergy, how is that the system knew so little about it?
Finally, at the end of the first day it was announced that they hoped to come back the next day with some policy statements. Alright, exactly what we need more policy statements. More policy statements are sure to solve all of our problems. Sounds to me more like them saying "we gave young clergy the opportunity to have some say, so we've done all we need to do," and now their policy statements can be published and then ignored just like all other such statements.
When I was serving the New England Annual Conference the bishop there said they were very concerned about recruiting and retaining young clergy. At the same time he was making these statements I was seeking to leave that conference to come to New Mexico, and not a single person from the conference ever asked me why I was leaving or what they might do to get me to stay. I think I'm a fairly competent clergy member and do a good job, and New Mexico certainly thought so, but New England simply didn't care. But they talked a good game and had good policy statements about young clergy, but it never matched their reality or actions. They said they wanted to keep good clergy but did nothing to actually keep them, or even talk with those they were trying to keep or recruit.
We are way past the time of needing more policy statements, we need actions. One person on Twitter commented on the constant discussion of leadership, and she thought that we were becoming too enamored with the idea of leadership. I told her I thought the problem was we didn't talk about leadership enough, and instead focused on managers. Managers make policy, shuffle paper, organize, etc. Managers are important for organizations because they help keep the institution going, but if everyone is a manager the institution is doomed to failure because leadership will move it forward.
Leaders cast vision, they give direction, they create new ideas and new initiatives, they push in new ways and try radical and dangerous things. No manager has ever excited a group of people, except other management types. No one will jump off a cliff or push beyond their comfort zones for a manager, but people will do those things and many others to follow a leader. I do think you can be a good manager and a good leader, although that is not typical, but John Wesley was both.
We need many more leaders in the church, and a lot less managers, and we need leaders who not only are actually willing to listen to young clergy, but to engage with them as equals, to put them into positions of leadership and to work together to forge a new future for the church. What we don't need are more gatherings for young people that have few young people, or any more policy statements.
(My disclaimer: While I consider myself a young clergy, I am 39, so do not meet the definition established by the church, but am definitely at the young end of the spectrum in the two annual conferences I have served.)
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Yes It Grew, But Where Did You Start?
One of the bishops recently elected in our jurisdiction has been being touted for his skills in growing a church, which currently has more than 1100 people in worship. The problem is that when he started at the church they were already at more than 700 in worship. Now I am not trying to dismiss his growth, because it is impressive, but he already had a huge start. So how much do we attribute to him and how much to what was already taking place?
Adam Hamilton likes to say, or at least his church does, that the church started with just the four members of his family and now they are at more than 18,000 members. But that too is not the full truth, because while his family might be the "charter" members it's not like at their first worship service it was just he and his family. Instead, at their first service they had more than 100 members and they have built from there.
Maybe a better growth story is that of Ginghamsburg UMC where Mike Slaughter grew the church from attendance of around 90 people to more than 4000. But Mike has been there since 1979. How many UMC pastors serve the same church for more than 33 years, or are even given the possibility of staying that long?
We do the same thing in other areas. Donald Trump did not start his real estate company, he took it over from his father, who had a personal net worth of $400 million, at least $35 million of which was left to Donald. Frederick Smith, founder of FedEx, for whom I used to work, started the company from scratch but began with his own personal $4 million and the $28 million he borrowed from other family members. In other words they already had tremendous starts before they ever began, even though they want to make it seem like a rags to riches story that is all about them and their work.
Again, I am not diminishing in any way the hard work done by any of these people, except maybe Donald Trump who is a pompous fool, but I would love to have a congregation of even 90 in attendance at the moment, let alone 700. Most of these churches also have lots of other factors that contributed significantly to their growth. The Church of the Resurrection is located in an area that has boomed in population, and continues to boom, which greatly helps them, although without Adam Hamilton's leadership, they probably don't become who they are.
I, on the other hand, am serving congregations that are in towns declining in demographics and with very little hope for future growth, let alone booming in population. I am working hard, struggling to grow my churches by teaching them to be faithful disciples of Christ, and I'm a little tired of hearing people who want to tell me all the answers because they "grew their church."
I have the same feeling about some of these people that Governor Ann Richards had about George W Bush when she said "he was born on third base and he thinks he hit a triple." Can you help me? Maybe you can, but please do not try and pass off on me how great you are and how much you did without also recognizing what you had when you began.
Adam Hamilton likes to say, or at least his church does, that the church started with just the four members of his family and now they are at more than 18,000 members. But that too is not the full truth, because while his family might be the "charter" members it's not like at their first worship service it was just he and his family. Instead, at their first service they had more than 100 members and they have built from there.
Maybe a better growth story is that of Ginghamsburg UMC where Mike Slaughter grew the church from attendance of around 90 people to more than 4000. But Mike has been there since 1979. How many UMC pastors serve the same church for more than 33 years, or are even given the possibility of staying that long?
We do the same thing in other areas. Donald Trump did not start his real estate company, he took it over from his father, who had a personal net worth of $400 million, at least $35 million of which was left to Donald. Frederick Smith, founder of FedEx, for whom I used to work, started the company from scratch but began with his own personal $4 million and the $28 million he borrowed from other family members. In other words they already had tremendous starts before they ever began, even though they want to make it seem like a rags to riches story that is all about them and their work.
Again, I am not diminishing in any way the hard work done by any of these people, except maybe Donald Trump who is a pompous fool, but I would love to have a congregation of even 90 in attendance at the moment, let alone 700. Most of these churches also have lots of other factors that contributed significantly to their growth. The Church of the Resurrection is located in an area that has boomed in population, and continues to boom, which greatly helps them, although without Adam Hamilton's leadership, they probably don't become who they are.
I, on the other hand, am serving congregations that are in towns declining in demographics and with very little hope for future growth, let alone booming in population. I am working hard, struggling to grow my churches by teaching them to be faithful disciples of Christ, and I'm a little tired of hearing people who want to tell me all the answers because they "grew their church."
I have the same feeling about some of these people that Governor Ann Richards had about George W Bush when she said "he was born on third base and he thinks he hit a triple." Can you help me? Maybe you can, but please do not try and pass off on me how great you are and how much you did without also recognizing what you had when you began.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Cokesbury Doesn't Get It
As a United Methodist Pastor I would love to be able to support Cokesbury, and I do when I can, but every time I get one of their catalogs I also get really frustrated. I just received their catalog for Advent and Christmas items and there are lots of things I would like to use for my congregation but I can't because they are too expensive. I would love to be able to give my members Advent devotionals to use, or things to do as a family to prepare for Christmas, but most of the items are $7 and up.
At the same time I am getting catalogs and samples from other companies with similar programs. Except this time the devotionals are less than a dollar, and the more I buy they less expensive they get. Now I am never going to reach their lower prices because my congregation is not big enough, but it is also that fact that makes price even more of a concern.
The vast majority (70%) of United Methodist churches are under 100 in worship each Sunday, and I assume their finances are as tight as ours are. We would like to use Cokesbury, but the simple fact is I go elsewhere for most things these days because others can offer similar products for less money. They simply don't match the reality of what is going on in the local church.
At the same time I am getting catalogs and samples from other companies with similar programs. Except this time the devotionals are less than a dollar, and the more I buy they less expensive they get. Now I am never going to reach their lower prices because my congregation is not big enough, but it is also that fact that makes price even more of a concern.
The vast majority (70%) of United Methodist churches are under 100 in worship each Sunday, and I assume their finances are as tight as ours are. We would like to use Cokesbury, but the simple fact is I go elsewhere for most things these days because others can offer similar products for less money. They simply don't match the reality of what is going on in the local church.
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